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Christie faces the music: The highlights

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New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is seen as a leading Republican contender in 2016

He's now ensnared in a scandal over the closure of bridge lanes in Fort Lee

"Time for some traffic problems" after town's mayor wouldn't back Christie, an aide wrote

New Jersey governor promises "soul searching" after firing the aide

What started with days of traffic jams in an obscure New Jersey town has now become a major scandal for one of the most prominent U.S. politicians. For those of you west of the Poconos, or just with normal lives, here's how the closure of two lanes on a bridge over the Hudson River suddenly became the epicenter of American political news.

Governor who?

Chris Christie is seen as a rising star in the Republican Party and a possible presidential contender in 2016. He won a second term as governor of Democratic-leaning New Jersey, the 11th-largest U.S. state, in November. He was the keynote speaker at the party's 2012 convention, serves as chairman of the Republican Governors Association and led all other potential GOP contenders in a recent CNN/ORC International poll.

Political dirty tricks – Aides and appointees of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie have been accused of closing lanes on the George Washington Bridge to punish Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich, pictured, for not endorsing Christie for re-election. If true, this wouldn't be the first time an American politician was targeted with dirty tricks -- the practice goes back as far as running for office. Click through to see other examples of less-than-ethical campaign tactics.

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Political dirty tricks – Prostitution allegations: Sen. Robert Menendez of New York denied that he paid a woman for sex, saying allegations that he did were part of a smear campaign. "Any allegations of engaging with prostitutes are manufactured by a politically motivated right-wing blog and are false," Menendez's office said in a statement. The alleged prostitute later filed a notarized statement saying she had never even met Menendez.

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Political dirty tricks – Fake letters: Sen. Edmund Muskie of Maine, running for president, was expected to do well in the 1972 Democratic primary in neighboring New Hampshire. But the Manchester Union-Leader published a letter alleging that Muskie condoned the use of the term "Canuck," a derogatory term used against French-Canadians. Muskie denied the charge but still suffered at the polls in the early primary, which doomed his chances. The Washington Post later reported that the letter was a hoax and was probably written by Ken Clawson, deputy White House communications director in the Nixon administration.

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Political dirty tricks – Watergate: The break-in at the Watergate office complex was just the tip of the iceberg in regards to what was going on within President Nixon's re-election campaign in 1972. The Nixon machine was hell-bent on destroying its opponents, and Donald Segretti, pictured, was one of the primary dirty tricksters. The Nixon operative printed fliers that attacked Muskie on his stance against Israel, and he placed them outside synagogues. He also pitted Democrats against one another in a tactic he called "rat-f---ing," like the letter addressed from Citizens for Muskie that accused Democratic primary rival Sen. Henry Jackson of being a homosexual and fathering an illegitimate child with a teenager. Segretti was one of several Nixon operatives who ended up in jail.

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Political dirty tricks – Doctored photos?: Ross Perot was the first major third-person candidate in modern American politics to mount a serious run for the White House. His plainspokenness got attention, and his platform appealed to the far right. Most of all, he was seen as a threat to split the Republican vote with President George H.W. Bush, who was running for his second term. Despite the energy in his campaign, Perot dropped out of the race, claiming that Republican operatives were about to smear his daughter with doctored photos and try to ruin her wedding. Perot never explained what the photograph purportedly showed.

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Political dirty tricks – The mystery of Alvin Greene: When Alvin Greene suddenly won the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in South Carolina, experts asked, "Who?" Greene didn't campaign, had no political experience and was rarely seen in public. A CNN interview led to more questions of whether Greene, pictured, was intellectually capable of running a viable campaign. Others felt that Greene was planted by Republican Sen. Jim DeMint, who was running for re-election. Greene was cleared by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division before he lost overwhelmingly to DeMint.

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Political dirty tricks – Swift-boating: Before John Kerry, far right, was elected senator, he won the Purple Heart and a Bronze Star for his service in Vietnam and later protested against the war. When he ran for president in 2004, he spoke out against the Iraq War. Although Kerry was seen as the underdog in the race, he was gaining momentum before a political ad released by the group known as Swift Boat Veterans for Truth accused Kerry of speaking ill of his fellow veterans and lying to get his medals. Kerry first tried to ignore the ads before denying the allegations, but by then the ads -- and Kerry's avoiding them -- stopped whatever momentum was building.

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Christie: I knew nothing about plot01:20

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Back in September, two months before Christie's re-election, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey closed two of the three lanes that lead to the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee, across the Hudson from Manhattan. That caused days of massive traffic jams in Fort Lee, where the Democratic mayor had declined to endorse Christie.

The closures were ordered by David Wildstein, a Christie confidante and the governor's appointee to the Port Authority, which operates the nation's busiest bridge. They immediately sparked speculation by Democrats that the action amounted to political retaliation against Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich. That led to hearings in New Jersey's state legislature and the December resignations of Wildstein -- who had said the closures were part of a traffic study -- and Bill Baroni, New Jersey's top Port Authority official.

Then came Wednesday's revelation that a top Christie aide had e-mailed Wildstein before the closures, telling him, "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee." In a lengthy news conference Thursday, Christie announced he had fired the author of that e-mail, deputy chief of staff Bridget Anne Kelly, and said he was "embarrassed and humiliated" by the "abject stupidity" of the move.

Fort Lee's emergency medical services chief warned at the time that the resulting traffic jams could have life-or-death implications for residents by delaying firefighters and paramedics. He listed several examples, including car wrecks, chest pains and a 91-year-old woman who suffered a heart attack and later died.

"If a woman died here, he's in deep, deep trouble," said David Gergen, a CNN senior political analyst.

The former federal prosecutor's combative personality has produced some compelling video clips over the past few years, particularly when confronted with hecklers. Critics call him a bully -- an allegation Christie denied in his news conference Thursday, but one Gergen said the Fort Lee scandal reinforces.

"There's something about this that's so petty and so vindictive ... he's going to have to find some way to defuse this to prove he doesn't run a shop like that," Gergen said.

Investigations and some "soul searching" on the part of the governor, who said he was "blindsided" by the e-mails.

"I have worked for the last 12 years in public life developing a reputation for honesty and directness and blunt talk, one that I think is well-deserved," he said. "But, you know, when something like this happens, it is appropriate for you to question yourself. And certainly I am, and I am soul searching on this."

But first, he headed to Fort Lee for a mea culpa -- a personal, "face-to-face" apology to Sokolich and the people of his town Thursday afternoon, which Sokolich called "gracious" and "conciliatory."

That may not be the end of it, however. State lawmakers are still holding hearings into the bridge scandal. Wildstein refused to testify before the state General Assembly's Transportation Committee on Thursday afternoon, invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

And the U.S. attorney's office in Trenton -- the governor's old post -- says it's looking into whether any federal laws were broken. Both the Port Authority's inspector-general and state Sen. Barbara Buono, Christie's opponent in November, have asked federal authorities to step in.